How to Execute a Successful API Strategy

#CONNECT19
A Programmatic Approach
How to Execute a
Successful API Strategy
Matt McLarty, Global Leader of API Strategy
@mattmclartybc | matt.mclarty@mulesoft.com

All contents © MuleSoft Inc.
About Me
2
• Global leader of API strategy
• Helping clients with API programs
• Operationalizing API program
workshops
• Led API Academy (2012-2019)
• Previously IBM, CIBC

Agenda
3
1. The Digital Age
2. APIs as Digital Enablers
3. Executing an API Program
4. API Program Workshops

The Digital Age
5

Digital Transformation
6
97% of ITDMs are currently undertaking or planning to undertake
digital transformation initiatives to improve customer experience.
Digital transformation is front and center
Top digital transformation challenges
Disconnected infrastructure and systems 37%
Resources and budget allocation 32%
Lack of skills or experience in the IT team 29%
79%
IT efficiency
70%
Business efficiency
Top digital transformation initiatives
IT time spent on
maintenance
instead of innovation
69%

Digital Transformation
7
• Use digital technologies in all aspects of
your business
• Make your business a software business
– Not just a business that uses software
• Improve your ability to innovate, fine tune
your operations, reimagine your
customers’ experiences

Digital Products
8
Feel like physical products... ...but different...
• Serve and generate
customer demand
• Fulfill a related set of
tasks
• Manufactured, released,
marketed, distributed
• Provide an experience, not
material goods
• Can change in the
customer’s hands
• Powered and
differentiated by software

The Digital Supply Chain
9
Sourcing Manufacturing Distribution ConsumptionSales
Development
(of Digital Solutions)
Deployment
(of Digital Solutions)
Discovery
(of Data & Services)
Experience
(by customers)
Registration
(by Customers)
Industrial Supply Chain
Digital Supply Chain

Digital Standard Bearers
10

#CONNECT19
APIs as Digital Enablers

Salesforce: The Origin of Web APIs
12
From https://history.apievangelist.com/

13
From https://history.apievangelist.com/

14
Salesforce introduced SaaS as the
end of software, but recognized the
potential of web APIs for:
- Capability (CRM) migration
- Coexistence with existing
enterprise software systems
- Multichannel customer
interactions

Amazon: The API Company
15

16
Jeff Bezos’ “API Mandate” (circa 2002):
1. All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.
2. Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.
3. There will be no other form of interprocess communication allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of
another team's data store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors whatsoever. The only
communication allowed is via service interface calls over the network.
4. It doesn't matter what technology they use. HTTP, Corba, Pubsub, custom protocols -- doesn't matter.
Bezos doesn't care.
5. All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable.
That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the
outside world. No exceptions.
6. Anyone who doesn't do this will be fired.
From Steve Yegge’s “Google Platform Rant” available at https://gist.github.com/chitchcock/1281611

17
Reinventer of
books (Kindle)
Online reseller
of books
Online retailer
of books
Online retailer
of anything
Online reseller
of anything
(Marketplace)
Personalized
online retailer
Online retail
platform
Online
fulfillment
Online identity
verification
Online
platform
(AWS)
Online
payments

APIs in the Digital Supply Chain
18
Discovery
APIs discovered &
consumed
Development
APIs integrated & built
Deployment
APIs published
Experience
APIs powering
customer experiences
Registration
APIs built into
consuming apps

APIs: Building Blocks of Digital Transformation
19
Parts Products Packages

API Monetization
20
Monetizing APIs is not about pay-per-use data exposure
Monetizing APIs is about exposing valuable services to
consumers whose usage drives the provider’s business model

The Business Value of APIs
21
Increased Revenue
● New revenue streams
● Extended reach
● Value co-creation
Improved Efficiency
● Rapid partner onboarding
● Self-service integration
● Asset reuse
Higher Quality
● Customer centricity
● Analytics & awareness
● Observability
Greater Agility
● Responsiveness to market
● Crowdsourced innovation
● Technology disposability

API-Enabled Digital Transformation
22
An approach to supporting an organization’s digital strategy
through the use of APIs in a number of ways:
• Harnessing internal and external APIs to reimagine customer experiences
• Architecting and engineering API-led software systems to improve velocity,
agility, and evolvability
• Implementing API-based technologies to improve composability,
observability, and resilience
• Treating APIs as first class digital products by managing their full lifecycles
and cultivating product-sustaining ecosystems

#CONNECT19
Executing an API Program

What is an API Program?
24
A cross-organizational change initiative
to maximize the benefits enabled by APIs
in support of an organization’s digital strategy

Benefits of an API Program
25
Alignment with
strategy
Visibility &
communication
Governance
Knowledge
proliferation
Economies of
scale
API ecosystem
conduit

Effecting Change in the Enterprise
26
“Minimum Viable Program”
• Broad horizon, but don’t boil the ocean
• Start small and iterate
• Slice vertically, not horizontally

Effecting Change in the Enterprise
27
From Understanding Crowd Behaviours, Volume 1 by Challenger et. al
Sociotechnical Systems

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks
and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” - Antoine de Saint Exupéry

API Strategy Blueprint

Establish a Digital Strategy
30
“The biggest cause of failure in
software-intensive systems is
not technical failure; it’s building
the wrong thing.”
Mary Poppendieck, Founder of the Lean Software movement

Establish a Digital Strategy
31
Set the direction…
Assess current state
Set goals and principles
Define target audience
Stretch your thinking…
List customer experiences
Reimagine and prototype
Validate the ecosystem
Initiate the program…
Create case for change
Metrics and incentives
Prime it

Align Organization & Culture
32
“Any organization that designs a
system will produce a design whose
structure is a copy of the organization's
communication structure.”
Mel Conway, Conway’s Law

Align Organization & Culture
33
Shift the organization…
Embed principles
Incent self-governance
Restructure & realign
Adopt new practices…
Change frequency
Pipelined delivery
Experimentation
Build the API way…
Model domains
Sketch services
Define APIs

Evaluate & Build Supporting Technologies
34
“Differentiation does not come from building your
own API management platform. It comes from the
APIs you publish... full lifecycle API management
comprises a very wide set of functionality.”
Gartner

Evaluate & Build Supporting Technologies
35
Build the foundation…
Assess capabilities
Define implementations
Acquire skills
Manage the landscape…
Observe and measure
Navigate by goals
Standardize selectively
Counterbalance...
Ensure quality
Maintain stability
Permeate security

Engage the Ecosystem
36
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-
inch drill. They want a quarter-inch
hole.”
Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Solution

Engage the Ecosystem
37
Create API products...
Design thinking
Business model
Product lifecycle
Cultivate the ecosystem...
Marketing & promotion
Communities
Developer productivity
Co-create value…
Value chain
Identify partners
Incent collaboration

API Program Workshops
API-Enabled Digital
Strategy Workshop
“Way of the API”
Workshop
API Technology
Foundation Workshop
API-as-a-Product
Workshop
Now in pilot phase
Generally available in Fall 2019

API-Enabled Digital Strategy Workshop
40
Purpose
• To prepare an organization for
launching its API program
Topics
• Supporting digital strategy with APIs
• Reimagining customer experiences
• Initiating an API Program
Outputs
• API program charter outline
• Customer experience sketches with APIs
• API ecosystem outline
Audience
• C-level leaders (CDO, CIO, CTO)
• LOB leaders
• Digital teams
• Enterprise Architects

“Way of the API” Workshop
41
Purpose
• To teach an organization how to
deliver API-led systems
Topics
• Dealing with complexity in the enterprise
• Fundamental practices and cultural
characteristics
• Designing API-led software systems
Outputs
• Culture and practice roadmap
• System context maps
• Service design canvases
Audience
• IT Leaders
• Software Architects
• Lead Developers
• Digital teams

API Technology Foundation Workshop
42
Purpose
• To prepare an organization for
managing a landscape of APIs
Topics
• Surveying the API technology landscape
• Assessing technological capabilities
• API security and privacy protection
Outputs
• Capability adoption and implementation
paths
• Standards and guidelines outline
• API security models
Audience
• IT Leaders
• Lead Developers
• Enterprise Architects
• CISO’s, Security Architects

API-as-a-Product Workshop
43
Purpose
• To instill a product mindset in an
API-providing organization
Topics
• API business models and monetization
• Developer experience, productivity, and
community
• Co-creating value through API collaboration
Outputs
• API product roadmaps and business
models
• Developer community outline
• API collaboration opportunities
Audience
• API Product Managers
• Digital teams
• API-owning teams
• API consumers (developers, others)

For more information…
Visit the new MuleSoft API strategy hub:
http://mulesoft.com/API-strategy

How to Execute a Successful API Strategy

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